IMMENSE EGG. 169 



three pounds. The shell is in fact so hard as to 

 be employed for drinking utensils, being often 

 ornamented with singular devices, and set in 

 various ways. Several large shells are to be seen 

 at the British Museum, some of which are as large 

 as a child's head. The eggs form a favourite 

 article of food among the Hottentots ; and are 

 cooked in a very natural method, by setting the 

 egg on a fire in its shell, and stirring the contents 

 with a piece of stick. One of these eggs forms a 

 good meal for a single person. 



The largest known eggs are those of the gigantic 

 moa of New Zealand, that enormous extinct bird 

 which has been the subject of so much speculation 

 to the geologist. A perfect egg of this bird has 

 not been found; but in a recent communication 

 from a son of Dr. Mantell's, it is stated that 

 numerous pieces of egg-shells have been dis- 

 covered, some of which are now in Dr. Mantell's 

 possession. From those it appears that the general 

 form of the egg resembles pretty closely that 

 of the ostrich. Like it, its surface is marked, 

 though not with the same sort of marks : these 

 eggs presenting the appearance of little groups of 

 straight lines the shell of the ostrich being 



